European DMCA

[Alessandro Rubini]

>> Huh? Reading a book is typically none of the author's exclusive  
>> rights, you I don't need a license to read it.

Nick Hockings: 
> That's what I thought until I tried selling a book to a secondhand book shop 
> once. They told me the edition I had was still being sold new, so they would 
> not be allowed to sell it. (This was a secondhand only shop.) 

Probably this is part of their commercial license. Like bakers can't
sell computers because they are not authorized to. It is not a matter
of copyright, fair use, or whatever. It's probabily just a local rule
to "prevent massive damage to the publishers". You can still resell
you book, but no commercial organization is allowed to help you doing
so.

> I have several times seen books with notices that expressedly forbid selling 
> them onwards, and video cassettes often carry a notice that prohibits showing
> them "in public" citing clubs, schools, and places of work as "in public".

That's part of copyright law. Public performance is an exclusive right
of the author and you need authorization to do that. At least
according to Italian law.

/alessandro, not a lawyer